The article focuses on the importance of judges’ compliance with ethical norms in the course of administration of justice with due regard to the principle of adversarial nature of the trial. To achieve this goal, the author has chosen a systematic approach based on general scientific and special scientific methods, among which the most commonly used are: historical and legal, formal and legal, and systemic and structural. The author identifies a number of basic principles of court proceedings, the implementation of which is impossible without a judge's compliance with ethical norms and high standards of conduct during a court hearing, namely, the principles of adversarial proceedings, equality of all participants to the court proceedings before the law and the court, respect for honour and dignity, and the presumption of innocence. In the course of the study, the author analysed and systematised a number of international legal and national acts, as well as acts of judges‘ associations, on the ethical behaviour of judges, while focusing on the requirements for the implementation of judges’ compliance with the rules of judicial ethics set out in the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct and the principles of judicial conduct set out in the Code of Judicial Ethics. As a relevant example of a judge's violation of the basic principles of judicial proceedings due to non-compliance with ethical norms in communication with the parties during the trial, the author provides his own analysis of the decision of the High Council of Justice to bring a judge to disciplinary liability. The author concludes that the principle of adversarial proceedings requires a judge not only to demonstrate high standards of conduct, but also to maintain an appropriate level of impartiality and neutrality during a court hearing, which in turn also ensures the implementation of other specific principles of judicial proceedings. The results obtained are important for maintaining a high level of administration of justice in Ukraine in compliance with the basic principles of justice, which in turn will strengthen the authority of the judiciary in society and will help bring the national judicial system closer to European standards.